Dear Kari,

I found your post most interesting and was glad to see others are also examining perceptions of local communities in the extractives sector. I feel that it is an area that often gets overlooked, despite substantial CSR related investment from companies to their communities. 

I've spent the past three years (partly researching for my PhD) in South America examining mining company and local community (resident, NGO, local government etc) perceptions on their relations. I've studied four different companies and communities so far in two different countries using innovative techniques such as focus groups, participant drawings, radio show call-in programmes and one on one interviews which are just as effective.

As you rightly say there is far too much to say here in a few paragraphs, and I think that is testament to the value of such techniques. Beyond learning about company-community relations, I believe it also allows for a deep insight into understand identities and company image.

Let me know if you'd like to hear more about my methodology, it would be great to collaborate.

Dear Rajiv,

Your research does indeed sound fascinating and I would love to hear more about your methodology, particularly with respect to participatory research methods and how you went about identifying representative samples/key informants within communities. My e-mail is kari.lipschutz@opml.co.uk. I look forward to hearing from you!